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Amazon's Zoox unveils electric robotaxi that can travel up to 75 mph
Six years ago, Zoox launched quietly with a mighty mission: build and commercialize just about every aspect of a robotaxi service from the self-driving software stack and on-demand ridesharing app to the management of the fleet and an unconventional vehicle that would transport passengers.
Now, it's finally lifting the veil on its multi-year effort. Zoox, which was acquired earlier this year by Amazon, unveiled the electric, autonomous robotaxi it built from the ground up — a cube-like vehicle loaded with sensors, no steering wheel and a moonroof that is capable of transporting four people at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. The vehicle can drive bidrectionally and has four-wheel steering, capabilities that Zoox said were included to allow it to maneuver through compact spaces and change directions without the need to reverse. In other words, dense urban environments.
The vehicle has a four-seat, face-to-face symmetrical seating configuration, similar to what a train traveler might encounter. It's also equipped with a 133 kilowatt-hour battery that Zoox said allows it to operate for up to 16 continuous hours on a single charge. Zoox didn't provide a mileage range for the battery.
Also at The Verge, Bloomberg, CNBC, and NYT.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 15 2020, @11:40AM (11 children)
Same solution you would use for a human driver being attacked by a laser (or a large rock). Find the perp and prosecute. Repeat.
All of the cameras, sensors, and black boxes attached to a driverless car should make that job easier.
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @12:41PM (10 children)
Diff in motivation between attacking a human vs attacking a robot that took your gig-economy income. Add the noise of the propellers [bbc.com] as an aggravating factor.
(incidentally, this is why I think it sabotage may become a real problem. Even without the "took my job", seems like people hate mobile robots on streets [uproxx.com])
Well, call me when you'll be able to throw a rock for a distance of 1-2km. Or see some manufacturer equip a taxi with cameras able to reorient in realtime and then zoom to take a picture of the attacker at the same distance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday December 15 2020, @12:50PM (4 children)
> cameras able to reorient in realtime
When you have 270 degree coverage on all corners, I don't think you really need to worry about reorienting cameras. Unless you're throwing rocks from directly underneath the car.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:11PM (3 children)
The scenario is "shooting" a laser from 1.5km to jam the proximity sensors of a flying robot.
Don't tell me the taxi will be equipped with large field/huge resolution cameras to make from enhance 15 to 33... make hard copy right there [youtube.com] a reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:25PM (2 children)
You do realise TFA is not a flying robot.
In any case, one presumes a flying robot has multiple sensors e.g. an altimeter.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:32PM
Fuck me, you're right, I'm stupid. It's not a flying one.
Don't know how I could have misread TFS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:34PM
would it have been a flying one, altimeter only doesn't help with proximity sensing, the part of the problem where the major risks are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:03PM (2 children)
If it can determine the angle and exact time, just plug those into your local AI surveillance camera panopticon.
People get caught shining lasers at airplane cockpits, even though you would think they could do it and hide in some nearby woods or something.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:22PM
>People get caught shining lasers at airplane cockpits
If downing passenger jets is "fun" for them, they probably aren't the sharpest tools in the box.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:26PM
The Alexa, Siri or Hey, Google panopticon? (the last two aren't actually interested in helping Amazon)
Or that one is still to be build from the taxes?
Because the one caught were stupid enough to think of it as "for the lulz".
Remember the Gatwick Airport drone incident [wikipedia.org]? A trick harder to pull than shooting a laser, but the actual perpetrator was not found even today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:35PM (1 child)
Propellers? In a CAR?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:43PM
Yeah, I'm stupid sometimes [soylentnews.org] - feel free to speculate or argue about the proportion, but at least in this case I am.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0